League of Legends - Brand Guide and Build

League of Legends - Brand Guide and Build

Are you looking for a Brand guide or a Brand build? This page covers the basics of playing Brand effectively including skills, runes, masteries, tips and includes custom skins.

Brand is a powerful nuker focused on area of effect damage and skill combos around the element of fire. He has a very powerful passive and a strong stun on his Sear ability, giving him great team utility. Brand is a great farmer and has a very powerful laning presence making him a great solo lane AP carry.

This Brand guide and build aims to be a basic and simple introduction on basic strategy that should be adopted when playing Brand, it is recommended for people just starting to use Brand.

Is Brand Over Powered?

Is Brand Too Powerful?

Brand Skills

Brand Skills

Blaze (Passive): A powerful passive, that is great against squishy champions and durable champions alike. This skill is unaffected by Ability Power, making magic penetration very important for this to be effective. This passive is also a key factor in Brand's ability to combo his skills together for bonus effects.

Sear (Q): A single target skill shot nuke. This skill is most powerful mid-late game when there is lots of poking and battles are less focused around minions as this skill travels reasonably slowly, making it easy to dodge. The main use of this skill is for the stun it offers if the enemy is ablaze.

Pillar of Flame (W): Your main damage ability that also packs a strong area of effect. This skill has the best synergy with Conflagration for either massive burst against champions or easily clearing a minion wave. Later on in the game you want to save this skill till you can hit maximum enemies.

Conflagration (E): The only non skill-shot skill of Brand's (not including his ultimate), this skill is your bread and butter ability to apply Blaze to the enemy because of its reliability and good range. This skill is very powerful in 1v1 lane match-ups as your main form of harassment due to its reasonable base damage, low mana cost and the added damage applied from Brand's passive.

Pyroclasm (Ultimate): This skill is best used against two or three enemies grouped together with no minions around for maximum damage. It's also great to use in a team fight after you have landed a Pillar of Flame on most of the enemies. It has pitiful damage in 1v1 encounters though and should only be used if its going to score the kill with only a single bounce. Its reasonably short cooldown allows it to be used in any small skirmishes that you and your team might have.

Brand Skill Order

Brand Skill Order

Ult > Pillar of Flame > Conflagration > Sear

Maxing Pillar of Flame first gives Brand incredible lane dominance and gives him amazing damage output for 2v2 and 3v3 skirmishes that happen throughout mid-game. Maxing Conflagration second gives you very reliable source of damage and reduces your reliance on skill shots. Leaving Sear to be maxed last as its mainly used for the stun which does not increase with level.

Your lane match-up will determine which skill you take at level 3. If you think you need a stun against an aggressive or powerful champion grab Sear, If you want some extra damage and are landing your Pillar of Flames then place another point into Pillar of Flame.

Apocalyptic Brand

Apocalyptic Brand

Brand Runes

Brand Runes

Red (Marks) - Magic Penetration

Yellow (Seals) - Mana Regeneration Per Level

Blue (Glyphs) - Ability Power Per Level // Magic Resistance

Purple (Quintessences) - Ability Power // Health // Movement Speed

Magic Penetration Marks are an obvious choice as an AP caster, increasing your overall damage output. Mana Regeneration Seals provide you with all the early-mid game regeneration you need. On Glyphs you want Ability Power Per Level to boost your damage and harassment strength even further, depending on your style you can also run Magic Resistance as a defensive choice. Quintessences are flexible, you can run Ability Power for stronger harassment or Health or even Movement Speed.

To learn more about making effective rune choices, visit the Rune Page Guide.

Brand Summoner Spells

Brand Summoner Spells

Best Summoner Spells:

-Flash

-Ignite

Brand has no escape mechanism besides the stun on Sear (which relies on two skills to work), while effective against one opponent it cannot stop more and so it is vital that Brand takes an escape/defensive based summoner (Flash in this case).

Ignite compliments Brand's burst damage and combined with his passive gives him great damage overtime, often killing enemies long after the battle is over.

Brand Build

-Open with Boots of Speed & 3 Health Potions, this allows you to harass easily and gives you some sustain.

-Building an early Doran's Ring or two, gives you a health boost, mana regeneration and some ability power.

-From here a Needlessly Large Rod is a good choice or a Catalyst the Protector to increase your lane survivability and sustainability in a tough lane.

-Your first big item should be Rabadon's Deathcap, while also finishing your Sorcerer's Shoes

-Now for your 2nd core item which is Rylai's Crystal Scepter, this gives Brand great utility by bringing some very solid slows to his team. Build this item in sequence depending on what you need, build the Giant's Belt first if you want some survivability and the Blasting Wand first if you want more damage output.

-From here you'll want to either grab a Void Staff to break through the enemies magic resistance and increase the damage of your passive, or go for a Banshee's Veil for defense.

-Your final item should be Zhonya's Hourglass giving you a great armor boost and an awesome active.

Brand Champion Spotlight - By Riot Games

Brand Tips

General Brand Tips

Conflagration is your most reliable skill to set enemies ablaze with, it also has the bonus effect that has the least uses, making it a great first skill in any combo.

You can use Sear to check bushes quickly and safely.

Don't use your ultimate against a single opponent, it will only hit once for very low damage, it is best used against 2 or 3 enemies or a single opponent surrounded by minions (and then there is no guarantee of damage on the champion anyway).

The stun from Sear is not extremely reliable as it is a slow moving skill-shot and it requires two skills to work. The best way to use the stun on Sear is to wait for an ally to use a stun/slow and then to use your stun.

A great standard 1v1 combo is to open with Conflagration > Pillar of Flame (25% bonus damage) > Sear (hopefully for a hit + stun), this combo is much easier once you have a Rylai's Crystal Scepter.

Try to save Pillar of Flame in skirmishes and team-fights until you can hit a group of enemies (at least 3), it has a lengthy cooldown and you are likely to only get one off in a team fight.

Be careful of your passive, it will draw tower aggro.

Early Game (Level 1-6)

Harass with your Conflagration & Pillar of Flame while focusing on grabbing last hits with your auto-attack. You can zone out weaker lane opponents and prevent them from farming effectively with the threat of Conflagration & Pillar of Flame.

Once you unlock your other spells you can land a Conflagration combined with either or Sear (for the stun) or a Pillar of Flame (for the 25% bonus damage), following up with Sear is a better option in duo lanes.

If you are in one of the side lanes you are a very powerful bush camper with Conflagration and Pillar of Flame.

Mid Game (Level 7-12)

You can now use Pillar of Flame and Conflagration to clear the wave of caster minions quickly and easily, giving you great farming potential mid-game.

Your primary mid-game combo (especially when you have Rylai's Crystal Scepter) is to tag an enemy with Conflagration and follow up with Pillar of Flame for the 25% bonus damage.

When you are in need of a reliable stun you want to use your Conflagration to tag the enemy with Blaze and then follow up with Sear for the stun.

Late Game (13-18)

During the later stages of the game you are likely only to get off one Pillar of Flame in team fights. It is important you save this for multiple enemies as this will allow you to land a stun if necessary and pull off a devastating fast-moving ultimate.

Using your Rylai's Crystal Scepter effectively is vital to adding to Brand's team utility, Pillar of Flame is great for an area of effect slow while Conflagration is your best bet for a single target slow.

If you can catch the enemy carry and another single enemy off-guard and alone your ultimate can easily devastate them.

Pre-teamfight you should be constantly poking the enemy with Sear due to its low mana cost. This will reduce their overall health, weakening them for the impending team fight.

Try to save your skill combos until an ally has locked an enemy down with some crowd control (stun/snare), this will ensure your skill-shots do not miss.